when visiting a foreign city, as well as paying respects to all the appropriate landmarks, you should also try to absorb a bit of the culture. and what better place to do that than at the local grocery store. that's what I did yesterday. it's actually the third time I've been (yes, I am eating...), but yesterday was the first time it wasn't packed with students and I had a chance to thorughly examine the products.


I made a few interesting discoveries. first of all, treacle tart is real! I'd assumed harry potter's favourite dessert was only eaten by wizards. it's a bit like buttertarts, though thicker and without the raisins. utterly fantastic. does this mean pumpkin juice and butterbeer are real too?


I also found boxes of little cakes. when I was a kid, tea and cakes were eaten regularly in some british book or another, and I was totally fascinated by the idea. I always pictured something like american zebra cakes, but fancier, with lots of coloured icing on top. the cakes I found yesterday weren't sugar-infested quite to the american standard, but they are pretty. now, if I could only remember which book it was. this was bugging me all night.


the heat has finally been turned on! it is no longer approaching arctic temperatures in my room. this is good as I still don't have my trunk. it's been a week and I am rapidly running out of clothes. it's also about 20 degrees colder here than it was in buffalo when I left, and I don't have a coat. I'm spending the morning parked beside the window so that I can mob the delivery trunk if it comes.


one of the construction workers in the driveway under me has a baloon tied to his hardhat. now he and his buddies are inhaling helium and talking in cinderella mouse voices. cinderella mouse voices with yorkshire accents.